I go on not knowing—I would not if I might;
I would rather walk in the dark with God than go alone in the light

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

worship

Reading through the biblical account of the Creation and the Fall get me excited. They are my second favorite part of the Bible "to story" to people who have never heard it before. There is some really great stuff in there that as people who've grown up with the story just totally miss. (Note to self: this is a post topic for another day.)

But, the other day, in the midst of being excited about reading the opening chapters of Genesis, I saw something I'd never noticed before: it was during Seth's lifetime that men began to worship (call upon the name of the Lord or be called by the name of the Lord).

I read my Bible with colored pencils near by so I can mark themes (kinda my own version of Kay Arthur's inductive study). One of the things I love marking is worship. So, perhaps that is why this time I actually saw this verse. This verse left me pondering much and asking lots of questions. I did look it up in a commentary, so I could get some of my questions answered.

All this thinking about worship reminded me of a post I wrote last January . . . I share it with you again:

Do you wanna know what verse my kid-brother (13 yo) counts as his favorite verse in the Bible?

Sam's favorite Bible verse (if memory serves me right) is Job 1:21: "And he said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'"
(And this is coming from a kid who had all of his birthday presents and
all of his Christmas presents from 2005 stolen during multiple break-ins in the
course of just a few months.)

I, however, tend to favor the verse right before Sam's favorite:
"Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the
ground and worshiped" (Job 1:20).

In a matter of seconds--in the time it takes to utter a few
sentences--the greatest man of all the people in the east tragically
lost each and everyone of his ten children, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels,
500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and all but four of his very many
servants.

And what does the grief-stricken guy do? He worships.

I love that word: w o r s h i p.

It has become so much more meaningful to me living here in Taiwan.
I have seen people worshiping great, big, HUGE idols, people worshiping
tiny 12-inch tall idols, people worshiping old trees, people worshiping
even the stumps of old dead trees, people worshiping stones and
tablets, people worshiping ancestors (both those from generations long
ago and those recently deceased).

My idea of what is worship has changed so much since living here.
Before it was only something I did with others. It was something I did
in Church--it was singing songs and listening to sermons. What I did
alone was "quite time" or "devotions." When I was a new believer, I
did not know I could or should bow before God of All and worship.

Don't get me wrong. I knew and could teach others and wax eloquent
about the fact that our daily act of worship was how we lived our
lives. And, I knew that worship is a coperate act we do together when
we gather as believers.

Don't get me wrong. I know that people in the western world
"worship idols"--TV, football, blogging, movie stars and so on. I know
that.

But that is not what I am talking about. This is different. It is markedly different.

We, in the West, do not kneel before our TVs and computers clasping
our hands in front of us and make a choice to actually, physicaly bow
before a graven image of the "god of entertainment." But, I have
friends, coworkers, students, neighbors who do make the choice to
kneel before an idol, clasp their hands around sticks of incense and
worship.

Watching them worship has changed the way I myself worship the
Almighty. I cling to that word "worship" in the Bible more so now than
ever.

Job, upon hearing that all he owned was destroyed, did what? He worshiped.

The scholars from the East followed a star and traveled miles and miles, why? They wanted to worship.

What did one of my favorite characters in the Bible, Gideon, do
after hearing the interpretation of his dream? That's right, he
worshiped.

Moses, Joshua, David, Samuel . . . they all "worshiped."

Often the Bible simply tells us "he worshiped." Sometimes it says "they bowed their heads and worshiped," but, many, many times it is written as "and he fell down and worshiped."

When
was the last time you "fell down worshiped"? When was the last time
you stopped activity, put aside the reading plan, the prayer request
list, and memorization cards, and worshiped?

Don't
get me wrong. I am not saying don't do those things. I am not even
saying those can't be "acts of worship." But, I am wondering, when was the last time you (and I) fell down, face to the earth, and worshiped the Most High God?

I wanna be like Job, and Gideon, and Moses, and David, and Samuel,
and . . . . . I want my first response to the proclamation of good
news to be that I worship. I want my first desire after hearing bad
news to be that I worship.

And so, after she clicked save, she knelt before the Most High God and worshiped.